About 200 families in the Pleasant Grove area received a little extra help with food in time for the holidays on Friday morning.

The North Texas Food Bank worked with nonprofit groups in the area to provide vouchers for qualified families for the“Food 4 Families” neighborhood parking lot distributions.

Families drove to a parking lot on South Buckner Boulevard to pick up fresh produce and bakery items such as oranges, potatoes, onions and bread between 9 and 10:45 a.m.

Earlier this month the food bank announced it must raise $7 million before the end of December in order to meet the increased demand the food bank and community pantries are facing thanks to a cut in SNAP benefits (also known as food stamps).

The food bank has met about half of its goal. The group estimates that it must provide 300,000 meals a day to its service area. Right now, it provides 175,000.

The later Thanksgiving this year and last week’s ice storm have put a dent in the Salvation Army’s annual Red Kettle Campaign, threatening the group’s budget to serve the needy.

The annual holiday drive is down $184,000 as a result of the ice storm after freezing rain and ice caused shoppers and volunteers to stay home for two days. And with Thanksgiving, the official start of the campaign, being later this year, and bell ringing beginning later at some stores due to national agreements with stores, the drive is down a total of $584,000.

These challenges “have resulted in the loss of so many days that the organization’s red kettle drive is now in serious trouble,” said Pat Patey, spokesman for the Dallas-Fort Worth area Salvation Army.

The Red Kettle Campaign is the Salvation Army’s largest and most visible public fundraiser. The money raised through the 500 bell ringing stations goes to programming in Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, Denton and Ellis counties all year to serve the hungry and homeless as well as providing after-school care at community centers.

“Unless people in North Texas dig deep to help make up the losses, the campaign will probably finish with the same degree of shortfall,” Patey said.

Earllene Ramirez, right, talks about her family's homeless situation as her daughter, Amaanyi and son Leinad sit on the mattresses on the floor where they slept at the Salvation Army shelter in January. (Louis DeLuca/The Dallas Morning News)

The national unemployment rate continues to decrease, but mayors across the country, including Dallas mayor Mike Rawlings, report that that demand for emergency food assistance and shelter continues to increase among families, veterans and mentally ill and that resources are likely decrease.

The annual assessment of hunger and homelessness conducted by The U.S. Conference of Mayors was released Wednesday morning in Washington. Mayors in 25 cities, including Dallas and Plano, took part in a survey about demand and services to alleviate hunger and homelessness.

“At a time when our cities are bracing for greater demands on emergency providers, most foresee a cut, not an increase, in the resources at their disposal,” said A.C. Wharton, Memphis mayor and the conference’s hunger and homelessness task force chair

In Dallas, the number of requests for emergency food assistance rose by 11 percent in the past year and city officials say the demand is expected to increase while resources are expected to decrease moderately.

Unlike many of the surveyed cities, Dallas didn’t have to turn away the hundreds of homeless families and individuals in need of shelter. Service agencies instead had clients sleep in overflow cots or distributed vouchers for hotels.

In Plano, requests for food stayed about the same as last year and about a third of the clients of food pantries were employed. The agencies had to reduce the amount of food provided, but officials expect both requests for help and resources to increase substantially.

Homeless families increased over the past year in Plano, where the median household income — $82,000– is nearly twice that of Dallas. About a third of homeless adults are employed and shelters were forced to turn away families and individuals because of the demand.

The display at the North Texas Food Bank shows what a donation of $50 and $100 can buy. Every $1 donated feeds three people. (Christina Rosales/Staff)

With families experiencing cuts to SNAP benefits, the North Texas Food Bank is expecting to have to supply 20 percent more food to keep up with the demand. The agency is asking for help in raising $7 million by the end of the year.

The food bank raises 40 percent of its annual funds between November and December, so the call for help is particularly important, said Jan Pruitt, president and chief executive of the food bank.

“The money raised now helps feed North Texans all year long,” she said. She added that the agency could use more weekday volunteers to help sort, pack and distribute food.

Former Dallas Cowboy Chad Hennings requests the community's help in feeding the needy.

The food bank enlisted former Dallas Cowboy Chad Hennings to spread the word Thursday morning at the agency’s distribution center. Having one in four North Texas children at risk of going hungry is unacceptable, he said, and it’s the community’s job to help alleviate the problem.

“You gotta help your own backyard,” Hennings said. “If you’re not going to take care of your own backyard, you’re not going to impact the rest of the world.”

Volunteers pack food boxes at the North Texas Food Bank in October 2012. (Courtesy photo)

The North Texas Food Bank fears it will not be able to provide hundreds of thousands of meals for families in its service area after the week-old government shutdown has canceled 10 truckloads of USDA food and another 36 are at risk, according to a press release from the nonprofit.

The North Texas Food Bank was scheduled to receive 134 truckloads of USDA food between October and February. With a total of 46 truckloads of food — or 1.8 million pounds of food — at risk, the food bank fears its service area of 13 counties will be missing as many as 305,000 meals over the next few months.

The USDA cancellations add more need to the already-strapped food bank that experienced a food shortage after an unusually high summer demand left its shelves nearly empty. The food bank is trying to keep up with demand, which is expected to spike again this holiday season.

President and chief executive of the food bank, Jan Pruitt said families could be hurting for months after SNAP (food stamp) benefits will be reduced starting Nov. 1 and mothers and children who rely on WIC could see those benefits slashed if the shutdown continues.

“The government shut-down, the SNAP cuts on November 1, low food inventory and a lack of volunteers have placed North Texan children, families, seniors and our food bank, in a perfect storm scenario,” Pruitt said. “Families who depend on these benefits to feed their children will be most hurt. This is totally unacceptable in modern day America.

The North Texas Food Bank helpsd supply about 1,000 feeding programs with food and partners with more than 250 agencies to reach families in North Texas and supply them with food. Last year the food bank supplied 62 million meals. About 20 percent of the food bank’s monthly distribution of food comes from the USDA.

Volunteers help pack food at the North Texas Food Bank in November 2012. (Mona Reeder/Dallas Morning News)

The North Texas Food Bank has made an urgent call for donations of food, money and time to help stock empty pantry shelves after gifts to the hunger relief organization have slowed this season and demand increased during summer months.

“Our primary concern is to respond to our partner agencies’ urgent need for food,” said Jan Pruitt, president and chief executive of nonprofit through a press release. “Please help us, help them. This food shortage impacts food pantries, senior food programs, after school children’s programs, shelters and soup kitchens.”

The food bank serves 13 counties by distributing purchased, donated and prepared food through hundreds of feeding programs and agencies around the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Over the summer, demand for food from the agencies and their clients increased with more families having more mouths to feed because schools were closed and children were not getting access to free breakfast and lunch.

The food bank has provided the following information on how to help:

Donate food. Collect healthy foods and drop off your donations at our Cockrell Hill distribution campus located at 4500 S. Cockrell Hill Road (near Ledbetter) Monday-Saturday. Canned food donations can be left in the lobby during business hours or in the after-hours collection boxes left by the front door. Needed items include canned vegetables, fruits and meats as well as low-sodium soup peanut butter, rice and beans.

Volunteer your time. NTFB needs up to 300 volunteers a day to sort and pack food at from Tuesday through Saturday – ages 10 and up. Sign up online or call 214-270-2055 or e-mail volunteer@ntfb.org.

Losing a consistent set of workers at the North Texas Food Bank’s Community Kitchen is an unintended consequence of closing the Dawson State Jail, said Jan Pruitt, president and chief executive of the food bank.

Every day, more than a dozen female inmates work in the kitchen and the food bank warehouse. The community kitchen provides 7,500 meals for several food pantries and home bound seniors.

“This is a bit of a bump for us,” Pruitt said. “We’ll recover from it, but these ladies are a consistent, reliable labor force for us.”

In addition to helping the food bank reach thousands of hungry and needy people, Pruitt said Dawson women also get valuable food service training and have the opportunity to earn a food preparation certificate.

Pruitt said the next set of possible workers in the community kitchen could come from Hutchins State Jail, but there are no concrete plans.

“Right now, we’re evaluating our kitchen to decide what we want to do with it in the future,” Pruitt said.

Pre-sorted bags of food that people can purchase for charity are on display during the Souper Bowl of Caring last year. (Michael Ainsworth/The Dallas Morning News)

The annual Souper Bowl of Caring Campaign, which benefits the North Texas Food Bank and Tarrant Area Food Bank, has exceeded the $1 million mark.

The effort is led by schools and congregations, as well as the Dallas Cowboys and local grocery stores. You’ve probably seen those bags of food you can purchase for the campaign at your neighborhood Kroger or Tom Thumb. The campaign goal is $1.3 million in food and cash donations.

After three weeks, when the campaign kicked off, their total is just over $1 million. According to a press release from the campaign, not all of the donations have been reported, so they expect the total to be a bit higher.

Souper Bowl of Caring started in 1990 and in its history has donated $91 million worth of food to the community to relieve hunger in 25 counties in North Texas.

Residents hang out and play dominos at the Union Gospel Mission's Calvert Place shelter in Dallas. (Brad Loper/Dallas Morning News)

Despite Dallas’ struggle to meet the increasing needs of the homeless and hungry, it has had the most dramatic increase, 36 percent, in the amount of food it distributed to the hungry — about 45 million pounds, according to the annual U.S. Conference of Mayors Homeless and Hungry survey. The change is more than any other city, though other cities distribute a comparable amount, such as San Antonio at 46 million pounds or Los Angeles at 48 million pounds.

Dallas, like a few other cities such as Chicago and Minneapolis, focused much of its food-supplying efforts on fresh, healthy foods and decreasing the amount of junk food it distributes. You can read about the North Texas Food Bank’s efforts, called Re-Think Hunger here.

The annual Hunger and Homeless survey includes responses from 25 cities, including Dallas, Chicago, Denver, San Antonio and Washington D.C. Cities were asked to provide information on the causes for homelessness and hunger and the state of services available to aid the problems. Cities were also asked to report on their outlook for the coming year.

Here is Dallas’s profile in the report.

Hunger
- The number of requests for emergency food assistance stayed the same during the past year.
- Among persons requesting food assistance, 65 percent were in families, 29 percent were employed, 13 percent were elderly, and nine percent were homeless.
- Food pantries and emergency kitchens had to turn additional people away due to lack of
resources, reduce the quantity of food provided during each visit and/or the amount of food
offered per meal at emergency kitchens, and reduce the number of times a person or family could visit each month.
- In the next year, officials expect requests for food assistance to continue at about the same level and resources to provide food assistance to continue at about the same level.Homelessness:
- The number of homeless families increased by eight percent and the number of homeless individuals decreased by one percent over the past year.
- Among homeless adults, 42 percent were severely mentally ill, 36 percent were HIV positive, 30 percent were physically disabled, 15 percent were veterans, 13 percent were victims of domestic violence, and 11 percent were unemployed.
- To accommodate an increase in the demand for shelter, shelters have consistently had to have clients sleep on overflow cots, in chairs, in hallways, or use other sub-par sleeping arrangements.
- Homeless shelters did not turn away homeless families or homeless individuals.
- In the next year, officials expect the number of homeless families and homeless individuals to increase moderately. They also expect resources to provide emergency shelter to increase moderately.

Dallas, like the rest of the country, also saw a slight decrease in homeless individuals and the chronically homeless and an increase in the number of families experiencing homelessness. Some of the decrease can be attributed to homeless organizations’ advocacy for permanent supportive housing units which have added hundreds of homes for the homeless.

We’ll learn a bit more about Dallas’ homeless population next month, when the 2012 homeless count is scheduled.

Perhaps you’re familiar with Maggiano’s Little Italy regular two-for-one deal: You order one of their classic pasta dishes, and you get one more to take home free.

However, for every classic pasta ordered this month, Maggiano’s will donate one meal to Feeding America, the national hunger-relief charity. This buy one, get one, give one campaign ends tonight. It’s network of food banks and charities, such as the North Texas Food Bank, provide food to more than 37 million people every year.

Steve Provost, president of Maggiano’s Little Italy said in a statement: “In celebration of our six millionth Classic Pasta given away, we invite guests to enjoy our gift of Classic Pastas, while helping us provide one million meals to those facing hunger through our partnership with Feeding America.”

According to a national study by Feeding America, about one in six Americans is at risk of going hungry. Maggiano’s, owned by Dallas-based Brinker International, hopes that through their campaign, they can donate 1 million meals.

“The fall season is synonymous with giving and gathering around the table with family and friends, and it is only fitting to combine these two traditions to help the 50 million Americans who are struggling to put food on the table,” said Matt Knott, interim President and CEO of Feeding America.